MARKET REPORT: Vodafone picks up as it sells Italian arm to Swisscom for £7bn

It might have been a new year, but the biggest corporate news on the first session of 2025 came from a number of old deals completing.

Vodafone said it had finalised the sale of its Italian operations to Swisscom for £6.6billion. 

As part of the agreement, the UK mobile telecoms firm will continue to provide some services to Vodafone Italy for up to five years.

Vodafone said the proceeds will be used to reduce net debt with a target to return up to £1.66billion to shareholders once its buyback programme has completed. It gained 0.9 per cent, or 0.58p, to 68.88p.

Meanwhile, FTSE 250-listed John Wood announced the completion of the sale of its 51 per cent stake in Ethos Energy Group – a joint venture with Siemens Energy focused on rotating equipment – to One Equity Partners for £110million in cash.

Investors in the oilfield and engineering services provider were cheered by news that the £33.7million of prior planned loan notes were replaced by an extra cash consideration at completion. Wood Group rose 2.6 per cent, or 1.7p, to 67.3p.

The new year started in the same volatile fashion it exited the last. At the close, the FTSE 100 was up 1.1 per cent, or 87.07 points, at 8260.09, while the FTSE 250 rose 0.1 per cent, or 17.62 points, to 20,640.23.

As investors braced for the deluge of post-Christmas retail trading updates, Marks & Spencer stood out, gaining 3.7 per cent, or 13.8p, to 389.3p, on speculation it enjoyed a strong festive period thanks to its premium-quality food and drink.

But retail chain Kingfisher lost 0.5 per cent, or 1.3p, to 247.4p, amid DIY market uncertainties.

Strength in heavyweight commodity issues was the main prop for the blue-chips.

Precious miners found support from a higher gold price, with Fresnillo up 4.5 per cent, or 28p, to 649.5p, and Endeavour Mining ahead 4.9 per cent, or 70p, to 1495p.

Banking issues were a drag, however. Barclays shed 0.5 per cent, or 1.25p, to 266.9p, while HSBC fell 0.2 per cent, or 1.9p, to 73.2p.

Among the small caps, Roquefort Therapeutics gained 3.7 per cent, or 0.15p, to 4.2p, as it revealed plans to sell its Lyramid subsidiary to Pleiades Pharma for at least £8million. 

Mission Group rose 12.5 per cent, or 3p, to 27p, as the digital marketing and communications firm sealed the sale of its April Six subsidiary to Marketbridge for a total of £17.4million, with the net proceeds to go towards paying off debt.

And Victoria added 7.3 per cent, or 5p, at 73.6p, following a spate of share buying from directors, including Gavin Petken, a non-executive director of the royal carpets’ supplier. 

Before Christmas, Saqib Karim, managing director of a Victoria subsidiary, took his holding up to over 5 per cent. 

Meanwhile, Emmerson gained 19.7 per cent, or 0.12p, to 0.73p, after the Morocco-focused potash development company signed a deal with a specialist litigation funding firm to secure £8.8million in financing, with the funds to go towards its dispute with the government of Morocco.

Contango Holdings took on 12 per cent, or 0.15p, at 1.4p, after the Zimbabwe coal producer received a royalty payment of £160,000.